42 PEELIMINAEY EBPOET 



caudal and anal. Upper parts of the body dark brown in color; 

 lower parts light. Head contained 8J times in the length. Length 

 i feet. 



Very few data have been collected concerning the eel in 

 Minnesota, but it is, no doubt, quite common. There is a skin 

 in the University Museum which is thought to have been taken 

 from the Mississippi at Minneapolis, although there are no definite 

 data concerning it. There is a specimen in the museum of the Man- 

 kato State Normal School which was taken from the Minnesota 

 Eiver at Mankato in the spring of 1894 by some fishermen. 



Order ISOSPONDYLI. 

 Family HIODONTIDJl. The Moon-eyes. 



Body very much compressed; rather long. Head short, covered 

 with scales and having a blunt snout; mouth medium sized, 

 obliquely set and with equal jaws; maxillary bones small. Teeth 

 well developed in the jaws, tongue, vomer, palatines and pterygoids. 

 Eye very large; nostrils large; gill membranes free from the 

 isthmus; 8 to 10 branchiostegal rays. Scales large; a straight 

 lateral line present. Gill rakers short and thick and not numerous. 

 Stomach horseshoe-shaped; one pyloric caecum; a large air-bladder. 



But one genus and one species known in Minnesota. 



Genus HIODON Le Sueur. 



Hiodon tergisus Le Sueur. Moon Eye. Toothed Herring. 



Color light silvery, a little darker above. Body considerably 

 compressed, rather long; pectoral fins not extending to the ven- 

 trals; belly compressed into a ridge behind the ventrals. Head 

 4^. Depth 3. Eye very large, contained 3 times in the head. 

 Scales 5-55-7. Dorsal fin with 12 rays. Anal 28. Length 12 inches. 

 Bather a common fish in the northern part of the state. Specimens 

 have been taken from the Mississippi River at Minneapolis (W. H. 

 Chambers, 1880); Bed Eiver of the North at Moorhead and Grand 

 Forks (N. D.); Bed Lake Biver at Crookston, at all of which places 

 it is common (Woolman, 1892, Beport U. S. Fish Comm., 1893, p. 

 371). 



Family DOROSOMIDiE. The Gizzard Shad. 



Body much compressed; very broad from the dorsal to the ven- 

 tral fins (deep); scales thin, dropping off easily; belly compressed 



